What just happened?

It’s been a week since the American people let their voices be heard, and apparently what they wanted was more economic malaise, free stuff and four more years of a holiday from reality.

I must confess that I didn’t see it coming. I couldn’t understand how a (bare) majority of the American people could think that 2 percent (and slowing) GDP growth and unemployment hovering near 8 percent and trillion dollar budget deficits as far as the eye can see was acceptable. I was wrong. A bare majority of the American people are complete morons.

I know that’s not the politic thing to say, but it’s true. You can be pro-choice and for single-payer and against Guantanamo Bay (still open by the way) and still look at Barack Obama and say: “What the hell have you been doing these past four years?” Obama the candidate in 2008 famously called George W. Bush “un-American” for adding $4 trillion to the national debt over 8 years. Apparently, Obama meant the rate of deficit spending wasn’t high enough, because he more than doubled that rate in less than half the time.

I was listening to a podcast where a guy was describing this Hispanic woman who is a pro-life Catholic, alarmed at the Obamacare regulations that would force religious institutions to cover birth control and abortifacients and disappointed in the state of the economy, but said she was voting for Obama “because I believe he cares about me.”

The rational reaction is to take this woman over your knee, pull out your belt and start putting some sense into her until her sphincter releases her head.

He cares about me? Is this what we’ve come to as a nation? Voting for a leader is an episode of “The Bachelor?” He is opposed to everything you hold dear, but because he’s got that smile and twinkle in your eye he’s got your vote?

I bring up this woman’s ethnicity because there’s a lot of focus on how the GOP is too white and needs to reach out to Hispanics. We should certainly try our best to communicate our values and some common sense to Hispanics, but the call for a rolling amnesty for illegal aliens until the end of time isn’t going to save the GOP. Hey! Who shepherded through that last amnesty? Yeah, that won his party the Hispanic vote for… oh yeah, never.

If Republicans are going to win over Hispanics (and Asians, and blacks, and every other ethnicity out there) it’s not going to be by playing the Democrats game of giving out freebies. The GOP tried that in the late ‘90s and during the Bush administration and it didn’t work. Instead, we need to better communicate that the America we hope to foster would give them more opportunities to pursue wealth and happiness, while the Democrats merely want them dependent on government. Right before the election, Obama’s Department of Agriculture was touting the fact that more people than ever before were on food stamps! Free stuff!

Unfortunately, communicating this message is not going to be easy. Why? Because of the biggest reason Obama won last Tuesday. It wasn’t the billion dollars he spent. It wasn’t the get out the vote ground game.

It was because of the utter failure of the media to live up to its self-professed standards of holding the powerful to account. For more than four years, the mainstream media has overwhelmingly covered for Barack Obama. I responded with a bit of snark on Twitter earlier today when someone commented that we need to work hard to win the Hispanic vote. I thought simply not sending thousands of guns across the Mexican border and into the hands of the drug cartels leading to the death of more than 300 Mexicans would’ve been enough to win us the Hispanic vote over a guy who did just that.

But apparently they didn’t notice that. The media hasn’t been interested in Fast and Furious. At the height of the election furor Obama even tried the howler that the Bush administration had started that program. Most of the so-called fact-checkers and none of the media could be bothered to correct even that outrageous falsehood.

Don’t get me started on Benghazi. Or how much better Obama’s FEMA did with Sandy than Bush 43 did with Katrina.

And the worst part of all was how they covered the economy and the U.S. fiscal situation. James Taranto over at The Wall Street Journal the week before the election highlighted a couple of paragraphs from the New York Times on the GDP growth in the economy. One was from 2004 and lamented a meager 2.7 percent growth and how it held ominous signs for the economy. The second was from early November and lauded the 2 .0 percent growth under Obama and how it showed signs the economy is improving.

Responsible reporters would’ve also done the math when it came to Obama’s budget proposals. (I know journalists aren’t good at math, but come on.) First off, they’d have noted that Obama’s last two budgets hadn’t garnered a single vote—from Republican or Democrat—in Congress. (This is called a “sign.”) Second, they’d have noted that even if Obama got his tax hike on those making more than $250,000 passed, it wouldn’t come close to covering his ongoing budget deficits. “Where would the rest of the money come from?” they would ask.

But they didn’t ask. You see, they wanted him to win. So they ran with the “war on women” narrative that Obama fed them. Republicans will take away your birth control! Apparently in the world Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) live in, someone else failing to pay for your birth control is the same as prohibiting you from having any.

When will the Obama administration stop the “war on triple-layer double-chocolate cake?” I demand someone else pay for it and supply me with a slice right now!

Last Tuesday, the American people spoke. Now, they’ll get what they deserve.

I definitely agree with you on all of these points! So disappointing when Obama was voted in again, especially as a college student when all my peers are so blinded by his appeal to all the freedoms they want for themselves.

How do you think the Republican party can step it up for the next election? Because to be honest the last few candidates haven’t exactly been great opponents either. Romney vs Obama didn’t spark any excitement for either win.